He eluded a global manhunt for nearly half a century, living in Cairo as a Muslim convert before his death from cancer in 1992.

His son has now admitted that he knew his father's location in Egypt and was with him when he died.

Mr Heim has told the German media that he sheltered his Nazi fugitive father because he did not want to bring trouble to the war criminal's Egyptian friends.

Heinz Heister, a judge at the regional court of Baden Baden, where Rudiger Heim lives, told The Daily Telegraph that the son of a Nazi war criminal could not be prosecuted because he was under no obligation to speak out.